2023 Château Taillefer Pomerol

Vintage 2023

Château Taillefer 2023 offers a rich and complex tasting experience with notes of blackberry and dark plum, subtle hints of violets, ground spices, and chocolate. The wine is full-bodied and dense, with a deep and generous dark-fruit character and compact, velvety tannins. The finish is long and polished, contributing to the wine's harmonious balance.

The Harvest

Spring began with a frost on April 5th, which, thanks to constant vigilance, did not affect the Château Taillefer vineyard. Warm, dry weather followed, which favored an early harvest. The summer was quite wet, with several stormy spells that favored grape development. However, good plant health management and the dedication of the teams preserved the quality of the harvest. September was exceptionally warm and sunny, with a late heatwave and average temperatures 4 degrees above the seasonal norm.

The harvest took place from September 13th to 20th, 2023. A generous harvest, the longest in Château Taillefer's history, began on September 13th, with 17 days of picking spread over four weeks. Thanks to the excellent health of the grapes, we were able to take breaks on rainy or hot days. Our emblematic grape varieties have reached excellent ripeness and are at their best. The blend for the 2023 vintage is 93% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc, resulting in a yield of 33 hectoliters per hectare and a production of 50,000 bottles.

Terroir and Vineyard of Château Taillefer

Château Taillefer is located on the Pomerol plateau, at an altitude of 25 meters. The soil consists of silica and gravel on a clay base, rich in iron deposits. The vineyard covers 12 hectares, with a grape variety mix of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. The vine density is 6,060 vines per hectare, and the average age of the vines is 36 years. Vineyard practices favor plowing and grass cover, mixed Guyot pruning, and manual vine cultivation, depending on the plot.

Vinification and Maturation

The harvest is mechanical, with various sortings based on the ripeness and size of the berries and plot selection. Vinification is traditional, with gentle maceration in temperature-controlled concrete vats. The wine is aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, 40% of which are new.

History of the Moueix family

The Moueix family story begins at the end of the 19th century in Corrèze. Antoine Moueix left his native region to sell Bordeaux wines door to door in northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In 1923, Antoine acquired Château Taillefer, attracted by the estate's history and terroir. It is an old cru that appeared on the Belleyme map as early as 1761 and is one of the largest properties in Pomerol, with 12 hectares of vineyards on the southern slopes of the Pomerol plateau. Five generations have carried on the business, and today Château Taillefer is managed by Claire Moueix and her husband, Cyril Basteau.

Reviews

• Jane Anson: 92 points
• Markus del Monego: 92 points
• Falstaff Magazine: 91 points
• The Wine Independent (L. Perrotti-Brown): 90-92 points